BERLIN, (PIC)-- The German federal prosecutor’s office said Saturday that an Israeli Mossad agent involved in the assassination of one of Hamas's leaders in Dubai was apprehended in Poland and would be extradited to the authorities in Berlin.
A spokesman for the prosecutor’s office reported that Uri Brodsky, the Mossad agent, was arrested on a European arrest warrant in Warsaw airport on a charge of obtaining a false German passport used by one of the assassins.
Brodsky is also accused of having been involved in providing logistics such as paperwork and safe houses for the Mossad death squad that carried out Dubai operation.
His arrest could cause serious problems for Israel, which has denied its involvement in the assassination and the issue of bogus passports.
Meanwhile, Israel’s channel two said that all the diplomatic pressures failed to convince Poland to extradite the Mossad agent back to Israel.
The channel quoted external sources as saying that the Mossad banned all agents involved in Dubai operation from traveling to Europe in fear of similar arrests.
Following the arrest of Brodsky in Warsaw airport, the Israeli occupation state is making every effort to prevent his extradition to Germany for fear that his interrogation could lead to further serious revelations about the operation.
For their part, the family of Hamas official Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh, who was assassinated by Mossad agents in Dubai last January, demanded the extradition of Brodsky to the UAE.
According to Al-Jazeera satellite channel, the family asked the Emirati authorities to demand Poland to hand over the Mossad agent in order to complete its investigation into the crime that happened on its territory and to bring him to justice in its courts.
Poland Arrests Suspected Mossad Agent over Dubai Assassination
Court officials told the German weekly that the man – Uri Brodsky – was arrested in Warsaw, and is suspected of aiding and abetting a crime and illegally acquiring a German passport in 2009 for one of Mabhouh's alleged assassins.
Brodsky was detained with an international arrest warrant, which was issued by Berlin after the government learned that at least one German passport was used during the Dubai assassination plot five months ago.
"He was arrested in Warsaw and is suspected of being involved in illegally obtaining a (German) passport," a spokesman for German federal prosecution said, confirming the Der Spiegel report to be published Monday.
"It's now up to the Poles to decide if they are going to hand him over to Germany."
Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a founder of the military wing of the Islamic resistance Hamas movement which controls Gaza, was found dead in his room in the Al Bustan Rotana hotel near Dubai airport on January 20.
The German investigation was said to have lasted a few months, during which it was discovered that the passport was issued to a man named Michael Bodenheimer in 2008.
Bodenheimer was said to have requested the passport on the basis of his residency in Germany and a wedding certificate belonging to his parents, who he claimed were persecuted there by the Nazis.
In February Der Spiegel reported that the German passport used in Dubai was real, but that the actual Michael Bodenheimer was an Orthodox Jew residing in Bnei Brak and that his identity had been stolen.
Dubai police have released extensive surveillance camera footage they say shows the team of suspects from the hit squad they have linked to the Mossad. Al-Mabhouh had been drugged and then suffocated.
Twelve British, six Irish, four French, one German and three Australian passports were used by 26 people believed linked to the murder, according to Dubai police.
In many cases, the documents appeared either to have been faked or obtained illegally.
The issue caused a diplomatic row in which the five countries whose passports were used called in Israeli envoys for talks.
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